Powerhouse flew around, keeping an eye on things without being spotted, his mostly-black Nike (tm) gear blending well with the darkness. A few hours of that and he'd heard nothing from anyone. He saw a couple go out onto the deck despite the light rain, a man and a woman. They pulled out some sophisticated communications gear; his interest pricked, he dropped down to sea level and looped around to try to overhear them.
    "Yeah, we know for certain that she's on board," the woman said quietly. "Powerhouse is around somewhere."
    "Does she know we're here?" her companion asked
    "I think she's just recognized me."
    "All right. Have you seen any sign of him?"
    "No, he's probably hovering a good distance off. Fortunately he has the IQ of a toad," Powerhouse bristled at that, but held his tongue, "so we don't have to worry that much."
    "All right, get through to the boss," the man said, and began activating the communications gear. When he had a clear line, he handed the microphone to his companion.
    "No, she's here," she said. "I don't know. Yeah, I think she spotted me and she's moving around in the crowd right now, trying to get closer. We'll figure out something to do with her, you want to just throw her overboard? No, Powerhouse is here, too. I would love to be able to tell you that now is the time to go, apparently they just left it unguarded but—oh, the Silver guy, how tough could he be? No, those are the only two that are in town, we didn't see anyone else at the thing today. We have no idea what sort of defenses they set up there. No, I can't maintain it constantly, you're lucky I was able to set up the link at all. I would have tried it with the tree-toad guy but he's got some fairly sophisticated defenses. All right. Yeah. OK. I have Poplar here with me. There's a chance that she may recognize him, I don't know, but... No, we don't know—oh, dammit, she's out on the side of the deck. Engage, not engage? You got it."
    Alchemy had maneuvered her way to the edge of the room, near the door, when she heard Powerhouse's warning voice in her ear before he shot up to gain a hundred feet of altitude. "Alchemy, it's time."
    "Oh shit, he heard us," someone else said clearly nearby.
    He moved a bit farther away. Alchemy drew her gun; she saw two people on the deck, about sixty feet away.
    "I think we can say she spotted us," the woman observed.
    "Yeah thanks, that was helpful," the other muttered.
    The woman started to jump overboard, pushing her male companion. Alchemy turned their shoes to titanium, walking closer as she further encased them.
    "Can I have one?" Powerhouse inquired.
    "After I'm done."
    "Let me take one, shake 'em up a little bit."
    "Take the guy, the girl's irritating me."

At the GEMINI Group, Scott lurked in the ventilation system and Eclipse in a handy shadow.
    There came a sudden explosion from the area of Lab 7, outside. The lab nearest the hedge maze. Fast-acting hyperkudzu vines had dug through and created a tunnel through the wall. There were people coming through the hole—Phil Chlora himself and two henchmen, a man covered in a bark costume and a woman in flowers (geraniums, to be specific). There were enough shadows for Eclipse to move invisibly. She picked up a good-sized piece of rubble and aimed it at the back of Phil's head.
    "Aaaugh!" He staggered back, stunned and the masonry found its mark. The foam rubber mask was all that saved him from unconsciousness.
    Cedar leaped into the room, looked around, saw where the spectrum translator was supposed to be in its vault, walked over and asked, "Should I just tear it open?"
    "No, try to find whoever just beat up our boss," Geranium snapped.
    Cedar spun around, startled. "Where is he or she or perhaps they...."
    The woman ran over to the vault. It opened.
    "It's not here! They've moved it!"
    "Of course it's not here, you idiot," Chlora started to say.
    Scott flowed out of the ducts and landed right on Chlora's back, hindering the villains attempt to rise. "I'm going to have to request that you cease and desist all criminal activity, and turn yourself over to the local law enforcement agencies," the robot chirped at the startled henchmen.
    Eclipse went after Geranium with another chunk of masonry. The woman ducked on some instinct.
    "Eclipse must be here," Geranium muttered to herself as her attacker moved away. "Forget it dear, I never fall for the same trick twice."
    "Boss, where is it?" Cedar asked frantically. Chlora mumbled something from underneath Scott.
    "He says it's in the lunch room," Scott translated helpfully.
    "It's—I'm not falling for that!"
    "The side room!" Chlora repeated more clearly.
    "Where's the side room?" Cedar wondered.
    "To the left," Scott suggested.
    "Over on that wall, I can feel where they've moved it," Geranium told him, ignoring Scott.
    Cedar took a few steps toward it and reached out, dug his fingers into the wall.
    Eclipse decided this was a good time to call the others.
    The side door was beginning to buckle.

Their communicators went off in an alarm signal. Powerhouse was moving in to take a better look at their captives. The communicators were saying that someone had gone drastically wrong in the Sahara and they were needed there right now, from which they deduced that it was actually Phil's attack on GEMINI. Equipment did that kind of thing in Seattle.
    "Stay here," Powerhouse suggested. "Be scary."
    "I'll try," she assured him dryly.
    He flew off at top speed. Zooooowoosh!
    The man—Poplar—slammed his heels together, shattering the titanium restraints, then stepped toward Alchemy. He seemed to be chewing something. The woman—Holly—also appeared to be putting something in her mouth.
    "I hate using this, it tastes disgusting! But I suppose that's because it's 'evil plant life.'" She threw herself overboard and sank like a stone.
    Alchemy blinked, turned her attention back to Poplar. He dove out of the way just in time as oxygen turned to titanium in midair, and took a few gliding steps in her direction, then wound up and hit her, hard enough to knock her off her feet.
    No more Ms. Nice Former Mossad Agent. This time it was napalm she hit him with. He screamed, wrenching his jacket off to get away from the chemical flame.

Back at GEMINI, Scott grabbed onto Cedar, who had the door about half open. He sucked the man straight through himself and out the other side, to slam right into Phil, who was just regaining his feet, and then pushed both of them back out through their hole in the outer wall.

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